ZTE Corporation, an international provider of technology solutions for telecommunications, businesses and consumers in the mobile Internet, announced the publication of the study “5G Best Choice Architecture” in partnership with IHS.
Based on the comparative analysis of SA and NSA architectures with 5G, the study concludes that SA architecture is the best path for the target network in the era of 5G technology under the long-term investment prospects, business capability and network performance.
From a network investment perspective, although the initial investment is small, the long-term cumulative investment cost of the NSA architecture is relatively higher than that of the SA architecture, considering the cost of upgrading the LTE network equipment and the evolution cost for the SA architecture.
In addition, the cost of initial deployment of the SA architecture can be significantly reduced through an appropriate 5G deployment strategy, for example, selective 5G coverage in hot spots, shared sites for 4G and 5G, using the 5G Core Network on existing data centre, and just starting with core 5G Core functions, opening the interfaces and presenting step-by-step service features.
From a serviceability perspective, the SA architecture not only improves bandwidth access, but also supports applications such as URLLC and mMTC. The SA architecture provides customised network capabilities for diverse applications through flexible network slicing.
Therefore, the introduction of the SA architecture in the initial phase can launch differentiated innovative business models and services in the vertical industry market as early as possible, in addition to providing larger sources of revenue for operators.
From the perspective of network performance, the SA architecture makes full use of the dual antenna transmission diversity and the high power transmitter of the devices with 5G technology, obtaining better network coverage, system capacity and other KPIs, significantly reducing complexity and cost of devices, thus enhancing the end-user experience.
In addition to analysing the 5G network architectures, the study also elaborates on the maturity of devices and the 5G core network, one of the main issues of operators, in order to eliminate these concerns in order to obtain a better network architecture.
In recognition of the capabilities of the 5G commercial network for the NSA and SA architectures, ZTE actively promotes the commercialisation of 5G, concludes network verification and tests the NSA and SA architecture with multiple partners. In the study, IHS uses ZTE SA application cases and commercial field test data as a supplement.
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